APES Introduction MINE
What is the per capita ecological footprint for a person in China compared to a person in the United States?
16%
How many times larger is the United States per capita ecological footprint than China's ecological footprint?
6
Using this chart, what percentage of the world's resources are used by developed countries?
88%
Protecting habitats, environmental restoration, pollution prevention and protecting natural capital are all examples of
Correct emphasizing sustainability in our ecosystems
Today's human population is 6.7 billion people, however when factoring in the average consumption of a typical US citizen, only 1.3 billion can be adequately supported with natural capital. This equates to:
Correct the need for more planet Earths (or less resource use)
Exponential growth graph
Exponential growth graphs curve up
What would increase an individual's ecological footprint?
Increased resource use increases an individual's ecological footprint. Anything that reduces resource use will help lower your ecological footprint. Recycling and reusing reduce the use of additional resources from being used.
Nutrient cycling is important because...
It recycles chemicals needed for plants and animals to survive
China has a rapidly growing middle class. As the middle class grows, how do you predict the per capita ecological footprint will change?
It will increase for the majority of those in the middle class
Exponential graph
J-shaped curve
One of the main causes of environmental problems is a failure to include environmental costs in market prices. describe why it is difficult to do so
Providing a tax on companies to encourage the reduction of pollution and waste is one way to control environmental problems. This would directly affect the price of market goods and services.
What defines a renewable resource?
Renewable resources can be replenished quickly through natural processes
Which statement is most true about solar energy?
Solar energy is a perpetual resource.
Natural capital includes all of the following, except...
The sun
Which is an outcome of exponential population growth?
When the population grows the amount of wilderness available is generally decreased along with natural capital. It also results in greater numbers of people using more and more resources and producing larger amounts of waste.
Per capita ecological footprints are increased by
any additional resource use or generation of waste or pollution.
19,200 people die every day from infectious diseases. Which of the below principles of sustainability might allow us to find and develop medications that can treat or prevent these diseases?
biodiversity
As a society we are using up non-renewable resources, we are degrading renewable resources, and we are growing exponentially as a population. This will lead to
degradation of natural capital
Using normally renewable resources faster than nature can renew them is called
degradation of natural capital
Living sustainably means living off the earth's natural capital without __________ or ___________ the earth's natural capital.
degrading, depleting
Using this chart, which of the following statement is true?
developing countries account for most of the population worldwide
The demand the human population has on earth's ecosystems can also be known as its
ecological footprint
Living sustainably includes all of the following except...
encouraging continued resource depletion
Protecting habitats and natural capital, environmental restoration, and pollution prevention, are all based on
environmental sustainability
Which of the pollutants below represents a point source?
exhaust pipe of a car
All non-renewable resources can theoretically be...
exhausted or depleted
The population of the world has been increasing...
exponentially
Over the years, the world has shifted to consuming one particular type of banana − the Cavendish banana. Where many countries used to cultivate a wide variety of banana species, almost all banana cultivation now focuses on the Cavendish species. Recently a fungus was discovered that is spreading faster than research on a remedy can be completed. Which of the below concepts would have prevented such a situation?
focus on biodiversity.
Which of the activities below represent harmful environmental effects resulting primarily from poverty?
higher levels of population growth
Population growth can generally be described as exponential growth. However different countries may have different rates of exponential growth. What factor contributes most to a decrease in the rate of exponential population growth?
increased access to economic resources, health care and education.
We say that environmental science is interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinary means
integrating the inputs from many different areas of study
the average measure of environmental impact a population has on a given geographical area can be considered
its ecological footprint
Which of the below problems can be helped or prevented by encouraging and preserving high levels of biodiversity?
massive monoculture crop failure
In general the ecological footprint of people in developed nations is
much larger than that of people in developing nations
wo critical components of sustainability are _________ and ___________.
natural capital, solar capital
A grassland is composed of many plant species that rely on many factors for survival. In addition to the plants, there are populations of animals that graze on the plants or eat each other. Sometimes these populations of plants and animals get too large, but there is always something that keeps their population in check. The cycles of growth and death, life and decay, winter and summer play out year after year. The aspect of sustainability that allows living organisms to take in needed atoms and molecules, and to return these same atoms and molecules at life's end, is called...
nutrient cycling
Which of the following statements is true about per capita ecological footprints?
per capita ecological footprints are based on an individual's resource use and pollution and waste generation and do not depend on a country's total population
Limiting the number of individuals in populations, especially in many developing countries, for the sake of sustainability is the concept of
population control
What supports a sustainable society?
population stabilization, preservation of biodiversity, dependence on solar capital, and nutrient cycling
A company researches the development of their product in the Amazon rainforest. In order to produce their product, the area must be cleared. After much evaluation, the company decides to move to an already developed area, where no clearing will need to take place. This is an example of
preserving biodiversity
Environmental science provides us with information that allows us to make informed choices about issues that affect the planet. It is an interdisciplinary study that includes information from all of the following fields except...
psychology
The four principle areas of sustainability are
reliance on solar energy, biodiversity, population control and nutrient cycling
Which of the pollutants below represents a nonpoint source?
run-off from agricultural areas
Which of the below is NOT a major cause of environmental problems?
scientific and technological advances
Which of the below are the most critical components of an environmentally sustainable society?
solar capital, natural capital
Nature reveals four basic principles that could help us transition to sustainable societies. Which of the following is not one of those principles?
survival of the fittest
____________ is the ability of the natural, cultural and economic systems to adapt to a changing environment indefinitely.
sustainability
What is one possible outcome of humanity's ecological footprint growing larger than earth's biological capacity?
the world will have an overall ecological deficit
One solution in solving the exploitation of our natural capital is to:
wisely use our shared resources at much lower rates than their predicted sustainable yields.